An administrative archive discovered in the city of Larsa (southern Iraq) has shed light on ancient social justice systems. The 3,800-year-old cuneiform tablets record a series of royal decrees from the reign of Rim-Sin I that provided legal protections for tenant farmers during severe droughts, specifically forbidding landlords from seizing livestock as payment for failed crops.
These documents provide a rare glimpse into the Old Babylonian government's efforts to prevent total agricultural collapse by mitigating the debts of the lower classes. The archive includes individual petitions from farmers who successfully used these royal laws to maintain their family plots, demonstrating a highly organized and relatively accessible judicial system in ancient Mesopotamia.